Light by Crescent Dreams

Chapter: One

Title: Light

Author: Crescent Dreams

Disclaimer 1: I do not own Inuyasha. All original characters are of my own creation.

[x] Chapter One [x]

[x]|[x]

"Inuyasha, you're such an idiot.." An exasperated sigh escaped Kagome's lips as she threaded the needle through the hanyou's wound.

"Feh." In such a position, the poor Inuyasha couldn't make out anymore words. Not that Kagome would have taken any of them to heart anyway.

Shaking her head, an almost amused smile turning up the corners of her lips, the teenage miko curled the surgical thread, making a knot for her to tie off. Once the knot was securely in place, she took out her tiny sharp scissors and cut at the end of the thread. Twisting it back around her finger, Kagome then put the remaining thread back into a plastic baggy, and then that returned to the medical kit at her side.

"Are you almost done? I'm getting tired of laying here," Inuyasha mumbled drowsily.

Without bothering to give her companion an answer, Kagome pulled out a tube of Neosporin and lightly dabbed a small amount over the stitches she'd just placed. Finally, a self-adhesive bandage was placed over the stitches, and a small amount of tape sealed off the edges for 'just in case' purposes.

A satisfied look briefly flashed across Kagome's features before she patted Inuyasha lightly on the head, just like the patient he was. "I'm done, Inuyasha."

"It's about damn time! I was beginning to think you were never gonna be done pulling me back together!" The remark, though spoken with barely coherent words, made the recipient roll her eyes. Kagome mentally replied with a 'whatever' as she stood up.

"Okay, Inuyasha. Just rest for a little while. I'm going to go see if Miroku and Sango need any of my help. Kaede should be back soon, and then we can finish off the soup to give to you guys." Reaching down to grab her first-aid kit, Kagome passed a backward glance over her shoulder at the scoffing hanyou. She could make out the quietest of protests from his lips before he fell silent; eyes and mouth closing as his body drifted off.

'I don't see why the idiot had to stay awake while I was doing that to him.' Pushing through the straw mat draped over the door, the raven-haired priestess brushed her fingers through her tresses, her thumb getting caught on a bandage over her cheek where a narrow slash was slowly healing.

As the years and months completed themselves, so did the remaining fragments of the Shikon jewel. Three years of back and forth traveling between her time and the Feudal Era and Kagome finally held at least a decent portion of the mystical jewel. However, no matter how large a piece she might possess, Naraku still had the advantage when it came to collecting the shards. Only by sheer luck had Kagome found seven of the shards laying around near the hotsprings her had Sango had taken a bath at.

Still uncertain that it was merely luck as much as Fate had helped her, Kagome refused to question the event, especially since Inuyasha was too thick to question it. He was just simply over-joyed that either Kagura or Naraku had lost the shards. (He automatically assumed they'd lost them.)

"And while the jewel becomes more complete, the monsters we have to face just get stronger and stronger." Kagome mumbled, crossing her arms over her chest.

Their latest attack had been a result of those stronger demons searching for the jewel. The small group of shard detectors was almost sure Naraku had been sending them. He always had a knack for creating monsters that nobody wanted around.

Pursing her lips and blowing upward to move a stray strand of annoying hair, Kagome stopped to take in her surroundings.

The sky was turning pink and orange and purple as the sun began to descend over the western horizon, casting a greyish-gold shadow over the landscape spread out in front of her. 'The forest is so beautiful at night... too bad it's full of creatures who can't appreciate that beauty.'

"Yeah, and Inuyasha'll just call me a moping, emotional wench for thinking so too. I just wish those creatures weren't so evil, whether they mean it or not." Releasing a sad sigh, Kagome began treading down the slope of the hill the village rested on in the direction of the river, where Sango and Miroku said they would be.

[x]

CRACK!

"Ooh! Oww!" The purple-clad monk fell backward onto his backside clutching the top of his head in agony. An incredibly pained look washed over his face, whether it be from the blow he'd just received or because he'd just been caught in the act of almost-fondling.

"Serves you right!" Sango huffed, pulling her kimono over her exposed leg. How could she have let that lecherous monk attend to her wounds? "I should have let Kagome work on myself and you should have done Inuyasha."

The chocolate-eyed tajiya sent the man across her one more heated glare before slowly gathering the healing materials that Kagome had given them. Putting them away in the basket and tucking the swath of cloth over the pieces of gauze and other herbs used so they wouldn't be tossed away in the breeze, Sango readjusted herself so she was half-leaning with her left shoulder pressed against a smooth boulder at the river's edge.

Both monk and exterminator had come back from their latest battle with a decent collection of scrapes and other such wounds. Sango had come back the second worse for wear with a sprained ankle. In the midst of battle, she had leaped from Kirara, in the process hurling her hiraikotsu at their foe. Having been accurately aimed, the boomerang hit its mark and then began to return to its mistress. Kirara was barely able to get her lady out of the way as a second massive demon began an attack on her, unfortunately, the weapon had knocked into her ankle. A sprain was a heaven sent as opposed to what could have happened.

Shuddering at the memory of being instructed by her father on the exact repercussions of such a dangerous weapon, Sango instead turned to a change of topic, eyeing Miroku with disinterest.

He was currently rubbing with one hand at the top of his head to soothe the pain in a clockwise motion, while the other was placed at his stomach and doing the same motion, only in the opposite direction. Wincing slightly in remembrance of exactly why Miroku's stomach was causing him such unfortunate pain, Sango released her anger at him in another huff.

After the boomering had been slightly redirected by her ankle, it smashed into Miroku's stomach, throwing him back a good four feet. She knew his pain, and even though it would bruise and be sore for a while, the aching would pass within a few hours with the aid of the tiny pills Kagome had given them.

"Hey, Miroku, I didn't know you could do that."

The sweet, feminine voice of their dearest friend Kagome caused both people to jump in slight shock, each too busy in their own little worlds to have noticed her approach.

"Do what, Kagome?" Miroku questioned, his indigo eyes curious. He was doing something special?

"Your hands. You can rub your head and stomach at the same time in opposite directions. I've been trying to teach myself to do that for a while. I always end up confusing myself for some reason." Kagome confessed, kneeling down before the female of the two.

A delighted smile spread on Miroku's lips at the indirect compliment. He was talented with his hands and brain, take that! Of course the monk already knew that. A wicked thought erupted in his perverted mind at the double meaning of the words, but it was nice to hear praise anyway. "Why thank you, Kagome. It's something I do unconsciously."

Tossing a smile and a nod over her shoulder at her male friend, Kagome gave Sango a brief once over to make sure that any of the visible wounds were patched up. Knowing Sango would never allow Miroku to tend to anything that could be qualified as indecent, the miko gave her friend a reassuring smile before directing her attention to Miroku.

"So, how's everything with you? Your stomach doing okay?" Kagome asked, genuinely concerned for his well being.

"Yes, the capsules you provided me with have begun working. I can hardly feel anything, although there is a slight throbbing. Sango did a wonderful job of bandaging my arm as well." Miroku sent a praise-filled glance in the tajiya's direction, and she received it with a smile.

Nodding at him, Kagome scooted back over to Sango. Giving him a pointed, mind-message look, Miroku took the hint and stood, his right hand still pressed delicately over his stomach. "I shall return to the hut to check on Inuyasha and see if Kaede and Shippou have come back. If they have, I will send the kit for you so that the soup may be completed."

The females watched as he left, making a right at one of the larger trees in the direction Kagome had come from. Seconds later, he was out of sight.

Closing her eyes gently, Kagome sent out her aura a good fifty feet to make sure that Miroku, as well as any other beings, were not present. Opening her sapphire-silver eyes, Kagome slightly inclined her head to let Sango know all was clear.

"How is Inuyasha doing, Kagome? He was in pretty bad shape when Miroku and myself left you two." Sango asked, the concern for her friend was evident. A good six inches long, and an inch wide, Kagome had decided that the wound needed more attention. Even though demon blood ran through his veins, the wound was so severe that it would take longer than normal for him to completely heal.

"Inuyasha's doing alright. He's probably asleep right now since I gave him the muscle relaxer. I'm just happy he wasn't cut deep enough to nick any of the major organs. But what about you, Sango? I can see that Miroku put the ace bandage around your ankle, and the cut on your throat is done well, but are there any other injuries that need to be checked?" Lifting up on her knees, Kagome did another once over, leaning from one side to the other to try and spot any dried blood on her friend's kimono. Nearly missing the spot due to Sango's position against the bolder, Kagome indicated to her back.

"What's that?"

"Oh, yes... I need you to check that. I refused to let Miroku see it. There is some pain, but I'm not sure if it's anything serious." Sango then began to inch forward, turning in the direction of the river only a couple feet from her toes so her back was towards Kagome. Undoing the obi the held the kimono together, the exterminator shrugged the garment from her shoulders, it falling to resting around her waist.

Kagome went up behind her friend, pressing lightly to a welted streak going in a diagonal direction across her right shoulder blade. Small dribbles of crimson blood were dried against the lightly tanned skin, and already Sango's body was in the process of healing itself as tiny scabs were forming.

"How is it?" Sango asked, relaxing slightly under her friend's cool fingers. They were circling and gently probing the area around the welted line, making sure that nothing else seemed to be ruptured or harmed beneath her skin. Pale bruising was forming on the very edges, but other than that, there was nothing.

Continuing to prod around against Sango's back, Kagome leant back on her ankles a bit more to be able to fully see her exposed back. With a shake of her head, the healer noticed that the droplets of blood had fallen down to stain against Sango's breast wrap.

Recalling back to the incident where Kagome had tried to convince Sango to wear a bra, which would be a lot more comfortable then the tight bandages that were traditional for the women to wear, a smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

"Kagome! I can't wear those tiny pieces of cloth! My... well... they-uh... they'll fall out! It's just so indecent." The demon exterminator had exclaimed to her with an incredible blush staining her face. Would a bra really be that out of character?

"Oh, come on Sango. You wouldn't have to wear the kind that I do. We have sports bras too. They're a lot more comfortable then those bandages, and easier to take off and on, and... well, they're just so much better!" Kagome replied to her, trying her hardest to get her sister to see her side of it. God only knew how much hell she'd be if she had to wrap and unwrap those things every time she wanted to take a bath.

'Now, however, Kagome thought, coming back to the present, Is not the time to try and get Sango to wear bras.' Still, she was scheming against the wrapped-up woman, and the argument of "Just wear it until you can find more binding stuff!" was becoming more appealing.

"Actually, it's not too bad. You must have been hit with something like a whip, although I don't think I saw anything like that during the fight. All that I really need to do is clean it and put on some anti-bacterial ointment and you should be fine." Opening her forever-stocked first-aid kit, Kagome pulled out a little packet with an alcohol wipe inside. Tearing the packet, she placed the wrapper inside the kit to be thrown away later, and gently shook it.

"Oh, you're probably going to have to change the binding, too." Kagome poked at the bandages indicating to what she was talking about. "There's some blood stains on it."

Sango sighed, nodding. She was a traditional girl, in however much sense she could claim being traditional. 'After all, women don't normally hunt demons.'

"Okay, this might sting a little," she warned, applying the towelette to the wound. Sango barely flinched as the moist pad wiped away the blood from the wound along with the excess that had dripped down her back. Putting the stained towelette in the garbage baggy, she pulled out the bottle of ointment and placed a pea sized glob on her finger. Spreading that over the welt, Kagome finished off.

Putting her things away, she went over to the river and washed her hands in the chilly water while Sango redressed herself.

"Thank you, Kagome."

"No problem."

Sango observed her friend silently, an appraising look on her face. No one had really bothered to make sure the priestess was well. However relatively uninjured she was, no one had bothered to ask, and Sango felt that given the role of doctor as she was, Kagome should get some sort of notice of appreciation for all that she did. Only the thanks should be given on a much grander scale.

Kagome continued to kneel by the river even after she was positive any clinging bacteria would have frozen to death in the water. It was unusually cold for mid-August. Pulling her fingers from the clear water, and watching as the minutes passed by and her pale hand slowly regained some of the color to them, Kagome turned to her sister-like companion, an ever-present smile hiding partially behind a mask of curiosity.

"What? Is there something wrong Sango?" Returning to a kneeling position near Sango's injured ankle, Kagome began to focus her energy.

"No, everything is fine. Are you going to do it now?" Sango, who had never felt the sensations of Kagome's ever-growing miko powers, was more than interested to know how they felt. Miroku and Shippou described them as tingling and warm, but could put no other words to the feeling.

Kagome nodded, and her emotional eyes were once more covered by her lids. Tilting her head forward so it would seem as if she was looking at the ankle, Kagome placed her hands a few inches over the bandage and began to concentrate.

Every since she had helped Kikyou after Naraku infused her with his miasma, her powers had shifted and grown, almost like a gate had been released, and she was flooded with this new light. Kaede had informed her that this was her soul opening of a 'chakra', giving her more clarity and spiritual power. Despite Kikyou's horrible deeds, Kagome had still helped her, releasing all of her hatred in the process, leaving nothing but pure energy to take its place.

Needless to say, Kagome had been more than thrilled. Now, not only could she infuse her spiritual power into any conductor, whether it be a purification arrow or a simple leaf, but Kagome possessed the ability to heal. At first, she could only maintain tiny scrapes and cuts, external only wounds, but now the power was near to fully developed, and internal and serious wounds were now an option. Without having to risk her life, however, Kagome found that using the power for simple things on a regular basis was not the best of ideas, as it took away her energy near to equivalent of that needed to heal.

Inhaling deeply through her nose, Kagome exhaled slowly, mentally measuring how much would be required to if not fully, then almost completely heal Sango's sprain. They would be resting in the village for at least another two days before taking off to search for more shards up north. Calculating the time in her mind how long it would take normally for the wound to be healed, the priestess released another deep breath before opening her eyes.

Seconds later, her hands were gently enveloped in a soft pink light. Out of the corner of her eye, Kagome could see Sango stiffen up, and with a 'shh'ing sound, the healing priestess was able to calm down the wounded tajiya.

Focusing back onto the task at hand, Kagome lowered her glowing hands over Sango's ankle until she was only inches off the skin. Kagome's right hand lowered until it barely touched the sole of her newest patient's foot while the left continued to hover inches above the ace bandage.

The actual act of healing the sprain took no more than thirty seconds, but within Kagome's mind, she had to work the healing magic into the brunette's tissue, easing it into a quick and accurate recovery.

However, on Sango's end, she was having difficulties not becoming giddy at the sensation. The feelings were almost exactly as Miroku and Shippou had described them: warm and tingling. Another feeling, more watery, began wrapping itself around her leg, and the tajiya found herself wishing for sleep in an incredibly inviting bed. Sadly, the watery feeling ended all too soon, and Sango opened her eyes, not realizing that she had closed them. Directing her attention to Kagome, she noticed that her brow was sweating, and she was out of breath.

"Kagome, are you alright? You don't look so well." The concerned voice broke through Kagome's concentration, and she looked up at her friend with a tired smile, the holy glow fading from the miko's hands.

"I guess I was already exhausted from everything that's happened today, and I just realized how tired I was now." Kagome responded, taking in deep, relaxing breaths.

By now, the afternoon sky had faded away from golds and oranges to deep purples and navy blues. Bright, white stars were visible through every opening the trees provided and the two females absolutely adored the view.

"C'mon then, let's get back. I think Miroku probably forgot to tell Shippou to come get us." Kagome announced, pushing herself to full height. Sango nodded in agreement and grabbed the medical supplies on the ground. After handing over the plastic kit to Kagome, the two girls began making their way through the edges of Inuyasha's Forest back up to the village.

Something, she didn't know what, made the miko stop. Steal-blue eyes hardened even more as she turned around, facing the river once again. Nothing seemed out of place, and nothing that Kagome could tell was a threat. The feeling still nagged at the back of her mind even as Sango called her up.

A chilly, much too cold for the late-summer season, breeze blew through the massive trees, sending leaves dancing to the earth.

[x]

A feral grin crossed over the face of the low-level youkai. He was stalking his beautiful prey. Beautiful, unaware, and injured prey to boot. With his better-than-average sense of sight, he could see the young human girls from across the river and through the thick mass of trees.

Laughter, much similar to that of a hyena, burbled forth from his gaping mouth. Before the horrible sound could reach the maximum pitch, the beast was silenced with a quick, precise slash of frozen wind.

The ground crunched underneath the massive weight of the lower level demon as he collapsed in a heap while blood began pooling and seeping into the leaves and earth.

Minutes passed, and the creature still remained, but nothing else approached. Not until the two humans left did another figure make her regal presence known.

As she walked, the soil and leaves beneath her feet began to freeze, a thin layer of pale blue ice spreading out before her; a frozen carpet for her to walk on.

"Well," she said, staring down at the huge beast she'd killed not a half an hour before. It was covered in fur and scales, its feet more reptilian than mammal-like while the face resembled more of a canine. "If you would have just listened to me, then you would probably still be living."

Reaching out with one of her legs, she nudged the beast with her boot-covered foot, not wanting to touch the dirty youkai with her hands. 'Disease,' she thought. 'Just because I cannot catch it, does not mean I want to carry it.'

Within seconds, the horrible youkai was frozen solid, even the blood that no longer flowed through his veins had become ice. Another moment passed as the demoness contemplated whether or not she should just crush the creature, or leave him as a sculpture for other beings to pick and chew at. Deciding, and without further hesitation, she brought her hand up, bringing it into a tight fist.

Just like with the priestess minutes before, the female youkai's hand took on an icy blue glow, a soft light emitting from her hand. Her piercing aqua orbs narrowed slightly, and then her fist opened, the palm of her hand facing toward the beast. Simultaneously, the hyena youkai exploded, cold dust leaping into the air. Silently, frozen shards of youkai soared through the air away from the female killer who'd doomed him to such a fate.

The ice crystals impaled themselves into trees and rocks with tiny thuds of noise each time. As the last remaining rays of the sun glinted on the shattered would-be stalker, brilliant rainbows were tossed against the forest, creating a wonderful scene.

Satisfied with the outcome, the youkai dropped her hand in a swift motion, creating a downward stroke of frozen wind to cover the pool of blood. Her winds sailed through the trees and across the river, carrying the fading trace of a dead youkai in the gust.

As the unearthly glow of her power faded away from around her hand, the demoness turned from the site of her latest kill, sure that the young priestess and her companion would not be bothered on their way up to the village.

The forest remained silent while the unknown guardian went to make her report. Drops of water seeped and melted from the earth, trees and boulders to fall forgotten to the ground.

[x]|[x]

Authors Notes:

This is the edited version of my first chapter.

I would like to very much thank Meiko-chan for becoming my new beta and fixing all the mistakes I seemed to have made.

This is my first SessxKag fic, so I'd really appreciate any critisism or compliments you have to offer =3.

Always,

Crescent Dreams.